A recently identified Idaho man who died in 1982 — known as the “Unknown Wanderer” — could have ties to the four-decade-old Tylenol murders case, according to law enforcement agencies in Idaho.
Dr. Matthew Francis Betkouski died of cyanide poisoning in the pews of a Boise church in 1982, with $1,900 cash and recently dyed hair, according to the Ada County sheriff’s office.
The agency, which had been searching for the man's identity for decades, is being careful not to officially name Betkouski as a suspect in the murders even though Sheriff Matt Clifford announced evidence is going to be presented as part of an upcoming Roku documentary titled “Unmasking the Tylenol Killer” set to premiere Oct. 9.
The Ada County sheriff’s office is also sharing relevant evidence with Chicago police that may be connected to the murders.
“More information does exist in this case that we won’t be releasing today,” said Tim Cooper, a detective with the Ada County sheriff's office. “Our goal today is to generate leads in this case or others.”
Seven Chicago-area people died in September 1982 after ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol. Johnson & Johnson recalled every form of the over-the-counter drug and created more tamper-proof pills and packaging as law enforcement searched for the culprit.
Chicago police Wednesday confirmed it had been in contact with the Ada County authorities regarding the case to “determine whether there is a connection to the Tylenol murders investigation, which remains an open cold case.”
James Lewis, a longtime leading suspect, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for extortion nearly a year later for demanding $1 million from Johnson & Johnson “to stop the killings" and maintained his innocence until he died in 2023.
James W. Lewis, a one-time leading suspect in the 1982 murders of seven people who swallowed tainted Tylenol, holds documents at federal court, June 5, 1984, in Kansas City, Mo. Lewis, the suspect in the 1982 Tylenol poisonings that killed seven people in the Chicago area and triggered a nationwide scare died in 2023.
(Keith Myers/The Kansas City Star, distributed by the Associated Press
No one has been charged in the case.
But the latest information could reveal new potential leads in the case.
Idaho investigators traced evidence — and eventually a DNA match — to Betkouski's brother after police positively identified the “Unknown Wanderer."
Betkouski struggled with mental illness throughout his life, though a traumatic brain injury in 1974 worsened his condition, investigators said. He wrote about his struggles with schizophrenia and depression, and that he was convinced a euphoria he gained from imagining scenes of violence could cure him.
Photos show him in Chicago in December 1981, though investigators couldn't place him in the city during the time of the murders.
In 1975, Betkouski, a chemist, moved to Jacksonville, Florida, for work, where he was reported by colleagues to management for talking about committing the “perfect crime” and suicide via cyanide, investigators said.
He was fired from Lockheed in 1982 for taking home unauthorized materials from the lab and over an “incident” at a local pharmacy in which he tried to obtain pills for an “experiment,” investigators said. A co-worker at the time reported him for allegedly saying poison could be slipped into pharmaceuticals.
A search of his childhood bedroom, where he stayed with his brother occasionally as an adult, turned up a map of Chicago made in the 1970s as well as a bottle of sodium cyanide — a different kind than was used in the Chicago area murders, investigators said.
Idaho investigators later connected with Arlington Heights police regarding their Tylenol murders cases. They also reached out to the Las Cruces Police Department in New Mexico, which also had unsolved cyanide poisoning in pharmaceuticals cases before the Chicago area murders.
Seven weeks before his death, Betkouski disappeared from his Las Cruces home. He then sold his car near the Mexico border shortly after and was subsequently found dead in the Boise church.
Chicago police ask that tips about the case be submitted to CPDTip.com or by calling 800-535-7867.
“This isn’t over, and what you’ve heard today could take months or years to work through,” Clifford said.
